Ph of the finished beer

[michaelhult]

Has anyone tried fixing the ph on a finished beer? I saw a video with John Palmer ( I think it was. Watched a bunch yesterday and can't say for sure it was the one he was in) and he mentioned it but no details.

If anyone has done this detailed please. I can make dark beers with my water. I'm still learning here lol. But my pales are all malt up front and then bitter bitter end. Drinkable but not good. I got 5 gallons waiting to be bottled sitting at 5.6 ph. Any mix ratios for calcium to 5 gallons?

 

[ajdelange]

I believe Gordon Strong adjusts the final pH of his beers with lactic acid. Finished beer at low pH has better biological stability than the same beer at higher pH.

You could do the adjustment with a pH meter (as I believe Gordon does) or you could do it to taste.

Calcium will not lower the pH of your beer. You will need acid. But if your beer's pH is really 5.6 no amount of acidification will fix it as something is seriously wrong here. An ale should finish at 4.6 or less.

 

[mabrungard]

I recently finished an American Wheat that tasted a bit flabby and dull. I dosed the 5 gal keg with 2ml of 88% lactic and the beer flavor came to life.

I'm hoping that your beer pH isn't 5.6, because that is not characteristic of a typical post fermentation pH. Something was very wrong if that pH is accurate.

 

[michaelhult]

To be clear. My tester isn't very good. It reads from 4-9. Mine tests between a 5-6. So judging by color I'm calling it 5.6. Maybe 5.5. Anyway I just recently had our water checks for another reason. I'll post the results. It's not optimum test for brewing though.

Hardness 22 grains/ gallon
Iron .29 mg/L
Manganese.2 mg/L
PH 7.35
Conductivity 1577
TDS 1194 mg/L
Tannin Yes

 

[ajdelange]

pH testing using colored liquids or strips doesn't work very well with colored beer or wort so your pH measurement isn't to be trusted. The beers actual pH is probably much closer to the desired range than that.

OTOH your water is very hard which means that it is also very alkaline (unless the hardness is largely permanent hardness) and your iron and manganese are higher than desired. You need to get a Ward Labs (or equivalent test) to see what your water is really like from the brewing perspective. The results of such a test are likely to be that your water is not suitable for brewing without dilution with RO to the point that you might as well use all RO.